Misc Survival Tips

BED BUGS OFF:
To get rid of them once and for all is to mix a glass of alcohol, half an ounce of spirits of turpentine and half an ounce of powdered camphor. Rub this preparation everywhere there are bedbugs and they will disappear completely.

HOW TO PRESERVE EGGS:
The best time to preserve eggs is August or September. The eggs must be very fresh even of the same day if possible. The eggs are placed in a cask containing crumbled fodder, allowed to tool and then covered completely.

This will keep the eggs fresh for months. If you want to keep them for more than a year, place the eggs in earthware crock & cover them with a 10% lime solution. Cover tightly to keep the air out and store in the wine cellar.

TO FILE OR NOT:
Make sure that File trick is in your survival kit for its many uses, sharpening bones and wood etc. a small one used by women in knife shape would do it, and maybe it can be sharpened in 2 side to make a surgeon or butcher knife to check it out.**

TRICK ON BBQ COAL FIRE FASTER:
On top of the BBQ put a big juice tin can which you have removed the top and bottom it will act as funnel or chimney and get your fire going hot a lot quick-her for her and you too!

FIRE STARTERS:
Friendly but ugly By: Jim Armstrong
For all you campers who are environmentally conscious, here are instructions for the ugliest but the absolute best fire starters.

Use old paper egg cartons, stuff till full with dryer lint (you know, the greyish blue stuff), then melt old candles and pour wax over.

Leave to cool and dry and then rip the little cups apart. You have 12 fire-starters that will help you light any type of wood. Just throw one in and light the edge. Told you they were ugly!! Not a good gift.

HOME REMEDY:
Aborigines in Australia plaster their cuts with spider web, someone remarked that there was a relation between the glutinous web and penicillin.

So if you cut yourself even deeply and you see between some roots etc. a big web pick them up with a stick and roll them into a ball and pack them into the wound with a tampon of shirt.

(***note of the co-author Right now I have not tested this information but it might be worthwhile to do so should you be in a real jam and have no penicillin to put into an infected wound, better try and let you or others die without it.***)

2ND HOME REMEDY TRICK VIA CUTS:
In N. America or wherever you can find it, when you cut yourself you could use that trick too but also use the "**sapin baumier" to stick or stitch your wound together and it heals quite faster than anything else.

OLD RECIPE AGAINST BURNS:
Take a lot of egg whites beaten with oil and finely grated> potatoes. The egg whites are applied very gently to the injured area and reapplied each time the preparation dries. After this, plasters made of grated raw potatoes should be applied to reduce the inflammation and relieve the pain.

SCARRING PREVENTION:
The best remedy is the bark of the Tepezcohite **pix needed tree, which must be placed on the burned area. NB Unfortunately the how to proceed is missing, maybe someone could tell us more, this recipe came from the Mexico area, so maybe some good brujo could help.

ONION TO SLEEP:
Cutting an onion, leaving it open on the table for 1/2 hour, then smelling for a minute will put you to sleep in a jiffy.
At least this is what my friend tells me, well it don't cost nothing to try and maybe stop you from a restless night and this without using any sleeping pill.

RESTING A LOT HELP A LOT:
In Survival situation, taking it easy is the best policy.
Stopping frequently to catch your breath even sitting down for a minute or 2 no more is enough to carry you on for a long time.
The key is to stop frequently when you do heavy exercises for example carrying heavy burdens. Set yourself short goals to reach, then stop and start over again.

The folly of forced march can not be over emphasise. Don't do them unless the dearest emergency. For it you meet troubles or expect troubles you should meet it fresh. Tired men make mistakes of judgement and timing. Weary bodies fall easy prey to the parasitic infections of the wild valleys.

THIRST & MARCHING ON:
When walking on a long stretch beside resting a lot, one should be careful of his drinking habit, as you walk rinse your mouth with water then spit the residue out, it is another lesson in the syllabus of survival. A tired man can not march with liquid slopping around in his stomach.

PLASTIC ROPE TRICK:
Plastic rope can be used for shoes laces, insuring you to have at all times a rope for many usage, tying up whatever you want, from hooks to bones to tent etc., as fishing line or as snares etc.
Beside burning and giving a high heat, the rope does not rot and it can be unravelled to make longer rope as need comes along.
So MAKE SURE you have it with you, in your survival kit and specially replacing your normal hiking boot laces, use a yellow colour one so that it can also be used as markers on a trail.

BASIC SHELTER REQUIREMENTS:
They are relatively easy to build if one has just a little knowledge of their construction. All of them are made from usually abundant materials at hand.
Dead branches and saplings are employed to make the frames, shorter sticks and branches form the roof latticework and wet leaves, snow, ferns, or just plain dirt can be used to seal out the elements. As with all other aspects of survival, "image-in-nation" and ingenuity are the keys to success.

COLD NOTES ADDITION:
COLD WEATHER IS UNDOUBTEDLY THE MOST COMMON LIFE THREATENING CONDITION ANYONE IN A SURVIVAL SITUATION WILL FACE.
WIND & FREEZING TEMPERATURES HAVE CAUSE THE DEATHS OF MORE WOODSMEN THAN ALL OTHER FACTORS COMBINED: PRIMARILY BECAUSE THE AVERAGE OUTDOOR RECREATIONIST IS UNPREPARED
TO WEATHER A WINTER STORM.
NEARLY ALL COLD WEATHER FATALITIES OCCUR AMONG SPORT HUNTERS:

A group form whom taking to wilderness without proper clothing, preparation, or training is almost traditional...
In a study conducted by the NRA in 1978 it was determined that the person least like to survive in extended stay in the wilderness was the armed sport hunter.
Wet, rainy weather can be every bit as dangerous as freezing weather, even though temperatures may be well above freezing.
A cold downpour on a sixty degree day will litreally wash away its victim's body heat, leaving him wet, cold and ill prepared for the sudden drop in temperature that's SURE to come after the sun sets.

Most experienced woodsmen agree that the BEST CLOTHING FOR RETAINING BODY HEAT IN WET WEATHER IS MADE FROM WOOL.

Goretex helps to keep you dry. Thinsulate will keep you warm when you are dry, but ONLY WOOL will keep you warm when you are soaking wet.

Snow in and of itself is probably the LEAST THREATENING weather condition. In fact a 20 degree day with snow on the ground will seem noticeably warmer than the same day without snow.
The same insulating qualities that make a snow filled forest so quiet will also make it feel warmer.
Snow can actually be used to protect oneself against the dangers of cold weather, because it is abundant, easy to work with and entirely effective for manufacturing windproof walls and roofs.
The MOST SERIOUS DANGER from the snow it its BRIGHTNESS, which causes a debilitating -if temporary- affliction known as "snow blindness" especially in bright sunlight.

Snow blindness should ALWAYS BE GUARDED AGAINST BY WEARING SUNGLASSES or a brimmed hat to shade the eyes. If neither is available, fashion emergency goggles by tying around your head a broad strip of Birch bark with narrow slits cut into it.

On the other side, the sun can be as dangerous as any other weather condition. Prolonged exposure to a hot sun can cause dehydration, heat exhaustion and finally heat stroke.

Just as hot is the opposite of cold, so are the requirements of a hot weather shelter the opposite of the cold weather shelter.
Where the cold weather shelter needs dead air to retain the user's body heat, the hot weather shelter needs to breather and have as much air circulation as possible.

HOT SHELTERS:
An effective hot weather shelter can be made simply by erecting a sloped light-proof roof over a frame, leaving the sides, front and back open to allow any air currents to pass unobstructed. The space blanket works very well here.
The roof should face south to keep out as much sun as possible, and travelling through open country MUST be restricted to the hours between dusk and dawn.

The shade provided by the roof will be approximately 10 degrees cooler than the outside temperature and should be comfortable enough to allow the survivalist to sleep throughout the heat of the day. Perspiration wastes water.

COLD SHELTERS:
A thick, insulating bed is ABSOLUTELY VITAL IN COLD WEATHER and is even a good idea on a summer night. The earth is the world's best heat sink and it will absorb a human's body heat faster than it can be generated, resulting in hypothermia that can range from mild to life threatening.

WINTER BEDS:
They need not to be fancy or difficult to make. My own favourite winter bed is made from lengths of dead poplar or cottonwood logs. When these short-lived softwoods die the tops break off in the wind, leaving sections of the trunk sticking above the winter hard-pack.
These dead trunks are easy to break off and several of them laid side by side on the snow with a thick covering of pine boughs will provide as much insulation from the ground as possible.

WINTER FIRE OFF THE GROUND:
Building a fire on a similar platform next to the bed will allow you to keep warm while sleeping outside in clear weather. If one is travelling and can avoid building a shelter at the end of the day's trek, why waste the effort?

FIRE HARNESSING & REFLECTORS:
Fire is one of the survivalist's best friends. It allow him to cook his food, light the darkness and most important to keep warm. But there is more to keeping warm than just lighting a fire. you need to harness as much heat from the flames as possible.
Sitting in front of blazing fire in subzero weather will keep only the front of the body warm.

PERFORMANCE:
To BE AS EFFECTIVE a heater as possible the warmth of the flames needs to be focused through the use of a reflector, either a natural feature or one erected by the survivalist himself.

A rock cliff or dirt bank makes an excellent reflector as does a space blanket suspended vertically on two poles.

Place your body between the reflector and the fire. Direct heat from the flames will warm the portion of you body facing the fire while reflected heat from behind will warm the other side.

(The principle is the same as that used in convection oven). For maximum heat reflection, place reflectors on 3 or 4 sides of the fire. Additional reflectors can be made from a dense latticework of branches stood on end to form a wall and stationed a minimum of 4 feet from the flames

A fire used to heat a shelter should be positioned directly in front of the shelter entrance, about 4 feet away, and surrounded on 3 sides by reflectors.

The reflectors will impede the circulation of cold outside air and focus the heat from the fire directly on the door of the shelter. With this configuration, the stranded woodsman on a thick insulation bed inside the shelter will be comfortable even in a subzero blizzard.

Snow in and of itself is probably the LEAST THREATENING weather condition. In fact a 20 degree day with snow on the ground will seem noticeably warmer than the same day without snow.
The same insulating qualities that make a snow filled forest so quiet will also make it feel warmer.

Snow can actually be used to protect oneself against the dangers of cold weather, because it is abundant, easy to work with and entirely effective for manufacturing windproof walls and roofs.

STENCH OFF:
To get rid of foul odour an old trick was to burn sugar on a burning charcoal or other appropriate means.

SURVIVAL VEST 2001:
Rough riders in Calgary stampede shows are now more and more wearing a new protection vest against horses and bull kicks which has proven itself as extremely effective, the thing to remember is that it must be done in conjunction with an under padding made of foam same type we see for sleeping bush mattress.

But the combination of both does the trick and you can get in tough situation with hardly a bruise but to your pride.